Read the Tape by Shapiro Mike;

Author:Shapiro, Mike; [Shapiro, Mike S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Advantage Media Group
Published: 2023-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

EPISODE 5

DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF

* * *

SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA

A week had gone by—an exciting, exhilarating, exhausting week.

During his drive to Virginia from Charlotte, Bennett realized with a laugh how little of the Ex Machina conference he had actually seen. Coders kept coming and going from the hotel with ever-changing bags of new swag—pens and T-shirts and toys and gadgets—but Bennett mostly stayed in the hotel bar, drinking coffee and brainstorming with Scottie about their new app.

Bennett didn’t even feel bad about missing the conference. The reason he had gone, after all, was to find inspiration—and boy did he find it. Once he started thinking about the app, he couldn’t stop: his brain kept going over the various puzzles and how he would solve them, and he would explain his solution to Scottie with words that tumbled out of his mouth, only half making sense, and she would ask questions or point out things that would set him on better solutions or more puzzles that needed to be solved.

He didn’t want to waste a single minute. That’s why, a week later, he looked so rough. He was unshaven, in rumpled clothes, eyes strained from so many long hours staring at his computer screen. He would have worked around the clock nonstop if it weren’t for Maurice showing up every few hours demanding to go outside. And even while he was walking the dog, Bennett was thinking about code. Luckily, they were being well fed by his grandmother, who plied them with her famous pancakes and all sorts of fine southern fare. Gran had taken a real shine to Scottie, who seemed to like her just as much.

Bennett had barely noticed. As of today, he had a working prototype of the app.

He was calling it “RobotFindr.” He tried spelling it the normal way, RobotFinder, but he was sure that it looked more app-like when he got rid of that e.

“Like Grindr,” Scottie said. “Matchmaking, but for robots.”

“No, it’s nothing like Grindr!”

“Relax, Bennett. I’m just joking.” Scottie had an ease about her that made her a great work partner. Before they had even left Charlotte, they had decided this would be Bennett’s project. Scottie claimed her programming skills were too rusty for her to be much help, but Bennett had a suspicion she was just being modest. She had been working in Silicon Valley, so, no doubt, she was the real deal.

The truth of it was, she just didn’t want to write code. “We’re doing this so I can spend more time making art, remember? And so that you can write the next big thing.” Bennett agreed.

Scottie had been fantastic about making suggestions to improve the app, and never in a way that made Bennett feel bad about his own idea. If he was getting short-tempered with her, then it was a real sign he hadn’t been getting enough sleep.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “It’s been a long week.”

“No big,” she shrugged. Then she held out her hand expectantly. “So … can I see it?”

The question caught him a little off guard.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.